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Rick Taller
Background A decorated war hero for the Grand Army of the Republic, the former Judicial turned infantry officer leading Clone Troopers in the Clone Wars was as much a criminal & mercenary as he was a hero and a patriot. For Rick Taller---who would form Taller's Hell Riders---the war between the Republic and Separatists was a war profiteer's dream in the distant, yet officially formed, Corporate Sector. With one hand to fought for his ideals in the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order---his convictions as he told people---and with the other hand he made sure he secured his future retirement. Despite Taller's questionable ethics, he was an effective commanding officer who earned the respect of both Separatist & Republican alike. Taller grew up poor on the streets of Corellia; he was use to pickpocketing & other forms of larceny to keep his stomach full and get things he wanted as a child & teenager. His parents were alcoholics and spice addicts and, as such, when he left home at 15 years old, they probably didn't notice---or care. Running the streets of Corellia until 20 years old, he eventually found his way into the Judicial Forces (and befriended Terrel Vacks) to make a better life for himself. While the Judicials did help reform Taller's life, the salty Corellian would turn his side business successes as a teenager & young man into a successful war profiteering adventure during the Clone Wars. Clothing Taller believes in simplicity, especially as he ages. He wears simple black smuggler pants with a golden design down the legs with black Action Boots. He has a black long sleeve armorweave shirt over his torso. He has a right brown thigh holster with a DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol, a gun belt with several pouches for various items, and a boot knife in his left boot. A black blast vest (see photo; designed to look fashionable & not like blast armor) is over his shirt. Military Awards Taller had received the following awards in the Clone Wars: * Medallion of Honor (21 BBY) * Mark of Dedication (20 BBY) * Mark of Victory (20 BBY) * Medal of Valor (19 BBY) The Mercs Taller would go on to form The Mercs in 19 BBY with Order 66 and the end of the Clone Wars. Taller's unit was ordered during, and in the immediate aftermath of, Order 66 to support operations of hunting down Jedi; Taller's unit was extremely loyal to him and the whole unit disobeyed the order secretly, deserting their posts and disappearing into Wild Space after faking their own deaths with a handful of surviving Jedi several weeks after the Clone Wars ended. The clones assigned to Taller followed him into Wild Space, having secretly removed their inhibitor chips long before (around 21 BBY, long before Captain Rex had discovered the chips). It is unknown why the Clones under Taller's command didn't notify Rex or any other clones of the chips. This hardened bunch of former Judicials & Clones gained the attention of the Empire around 16 BBY, after the Mercs rescued several Jedi set to be executed; while the Empire had initially rated the freedom fighters as pirates before 16 BBY, for several known successful raids on Imperial shipping, they soon changed their classification to militant insurgency after the rescued Jedi. Throughout the years, the Mercs would fight the Empire with one hand and rescued Jedi with the other; the Mercs would send the rescued Jedi to Open Hands Medical Services, a medical nonprofit working with displaced persons and refugees. While Taller and the other Mercs had their suspicions of the true nature of Open Hands Medical Services (in truth, a front organization for the House of Royal Intelligence), as long as the nonprofit paid them for the Jedi and for smuggling medical supplies & equipment to their staff on war-torn worlds, Taller asked little to no questions. From 17 BBY until 2 BBY, the search & rescue of Jedi became less and soon, Taller & his Mercs found themselves engaged in a brutal and lengthy militant insurgency against the Empire. While over the years, the Mercs lost personnel and equipment, they always found more willing freedom fighters and more equipment they could piece together to make things work. As the years dragged on and so did the fighting, the Mercs found themselves a steady spot on the Imperial Most Wanted List, typically hovering around #10 most years, and Taller turned more and more to a mixture of mercenary work, smuggling, and pirating to make ends meet as they fought the Empire as a militant insurgency in an increasingly tense conflict. By 2 BBY, the Mercs had gained the attention of the House of Royal Intelligence---who had been tracking them for years---and per the HRI, the Mercs are, in part at least, part of the Prophecy of the Living Force's line of the following: Across the skies, knights will remember their tales in those days and teach others.Category:Other Category:Story Characters